Death in High Heels

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Death in High Heels
Death in High Heels film Opening titles (1947).jpg
Opening titles
Directed byLionel Tomlinson
Based on Death in High Heels by Christianna Brand
Produced byHenry Halsted
Starring Don Stannard
Elsa Tee
Veronica Rose
CinematographyStanley Clinton
Production
company
Marylebone-Hammer Productions
Distributed by Exclusive Films
Release date
  • July 18, 1947 (1947-07-18)
Running time
48 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Death in High Heels is a 1947 British second feature ('B') [1] crime film directed by Lionel Tomlinson (credited as "Tommy Tomlinson") and starring Don Stannard, Elsa Tee and Veronica Rose. [2] [3] It was based on the 1941 novel of the same title by Christianna Brand. It was a very early Hammer Films (here Marylebone-Hammer) production and was released through Exclusive Films, Hammer's original incarnation.

Contents

Plot

Magda Doon, who works at a luxury Bond Street dress shop, is murdered. It turns out that the poison which killed her was in fact intended for her unpopular colleague Agnes Gregory. Detective Charlesworth investigates, finding that every member of the staff seems to have something to hide.

Cast

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "The acting of most of the cast is stilted and the only three who seem at all happy in their parts are Don Stannard as the handsome Charlesworth, Leslie Spurling as his assistant, and Bill Hodge as an effeminate dress designer. There is an overabundance of dialogue and, for a murder mystery the film lacks suspense." [4]

Kine Weekly wrote: "Its plot contains ingenuity and its de luxe dress shop atmosphere is not without glamour, and between the two it manages to triumph over a slightly amateurish script." [5]

Picture Show wrote: "Artificial, unconvincing melodrama, heavily laden with dialogue." [6]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "poor", calling it an "unconvincing thriller that hardly does justice to the author's original novel." [7]

References

  1. ↑ Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 73. ISBN   978-1-8445-7319-6.
  2. ↑ "Death in High Heels". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  3. ↑ BFI | Film & TV Database | DEATH IN HIGH HEELS (1947)
  4. ↑ "Death in High Heels" . The Monthly Film Bulletin . 14 (157): 77. 1 January 1947 – via ProQuest.
  5. ↑ "Death in High Heels" . Kine Weekly . 364 (2092): 26. 5 June 1947 – via ProQuest.
  6. ↑ "Death in High Heels". Picture Show . 52 (1327): 11. 1 November 1947. ProQuest   1879616089.
  7. ↑ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 203. ISBN   0-7134-1874-5.
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